Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	kingdom_n	law_n	parliament_n	3,975	5	6.2994	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77858	An humble examination of a printed abstract of the answers to nine reasons of the House of Commons, against the votes of bishops in Parliament. Printed by order of a committee of the honourable House of Commons, now assembled in Parliament.	Burges, Cornelius, 1589?-1665.	1641 (1641)	Wing B5672; Thomason E164_14; ESTC R21636	38,831	83

Parliament since the first entrance upon a Reformation in this Kingdome It is true that in the Reigne of King Henry the eight one Cranmer was active in the cause of God against those sixe bloudy Articles which cost so many their lives But of all the Hierarchie not one was found to joyne with him but all opposed and he alone for three dayes together was faine to stand to it and at length by the malice practice and potency of the Prelates hee was overcome and the cause carryed against him Acts and Monuments par 2. page 1037. edit 1610. This was in the yeare 1540. When about foure or five yeares after Cranmer in two severall Parliaments used his best endeavours to get that bloudy Law repealed and had before hand as he thought drawne over to his side the Bishops of Worcester Chichester and Rochester who promised to assist the cause in Parliament yet when it came to the tryall all the Bishops forsooke him and the cause againe In so much as the King himselfe and the Nobility stood to him so farre as to give way to a moderating of the former Law when the Bishops would not abate the least part of the rigour thereof Antiq. Britanni in Cranmero In King Edward the sixth his Reigne it is true a blessed Reformation was happily begun but by whom By the Bishops No verily Cranmer only excepted For he and the Protector were the men that advised the King and went through with the worke As for the great Bishops Gardiner of Winchester and Tonstall of Duresme Bonner and others they served to fill prisons and diverse ran away And in all Letters of the Lords for more particular Reformation it was onely Canterburie and the Nobilitie that did promote the businesse See Acts and Monuments in King Edward the sixth But in Queene Maries dayes who but Bishops for the Masse and all the grosse body of Popery both in Convocation and Parliament Cranmer and the rest of the Orthodox Bishops were soone persecuted and at length committed to the fire while the Popish Prelates being restored to their places spared no diligence to promote Popish Idolatry throughout the Kingdome and that by their Votes in Parliament whereby they might more plentifully shed bloud by a Law When GOD delivered this Kingdome from those Marian flames and set up blessed Queene Elizabeth it cannot be denyed but that in the Bill for restoring all ancient Jurisdictions to the Crown and for reestablishment of Religion and ejection of Popery the Lords Spirituall are named in the Act because the bill being carryed by the greater number of Votes the dissenting party which was the lesse are included in the rest and it becomes the Act of all in common repute and esteeme of Law But little thankes to the Bishops for any of that Reformation which was then restored We finde the Bishops of Winchester Litchfeild Chester Carlile and Lincolne appearing in open defence of Popery while that Parliament was sitting Act and Monuments par 2. page 1619. edit 1610. But these were not all that stood for that cause Witnesse the deprivation of Heath Arch-Bishop of Yorke Tunstall Bishop of Durham White of Winchester Thyrlby of Ely Watson of Lincolne Baines of Coventry and Litchfeild Bourne of Bath and Wells Christopherson of Chichester Oglethorp of Carlile Scot of Chester Morgan of Saint Davids beside Bonner imprisoned Pates of Worcester Goldwel of Saint Asaph in exile for the same Pseudo-Catholike cause None of all which can with any probability of reason bee imagined to have Voted for the restoring of the Truth they being by vertue of that Statute deprived for opposing the Truth And albeit I know nothing but by heare-say of the generall carriage of Bishops in Parliaments sithence and so doe not charge them yet how often they have with-stood bills against Non-residency * In 31. Elizabeth a Bill against Non-residents passed the House of Commons being in the other House greatly approved of much spoken for by many of the Temporall LORDS yet through the earnest labouring of the Bishops it could have 10 passage there Another Bill for reforming Ecclesiasticall Courts in King James his time passed till it fell among the Bishops and there was stayed Pluralities and other evils and defects in the Reformation of Religion and of their Courts the world hath beene sufficiently informed insomuch as the House of Commons hath already declared and resolved at a Generall Committee of the whole House Iune eleventh 1641. That the Bishops have beene found by long experience to bee great hinderances of a perfect Reformation and of the growth of Religion En majus bonum Ecclesiae produced by the Vote of Bishops in Parliaments And as their voting in Parliament in matters of Religion is ad detrimentum potius quam ad utilitatem Ecclesiae so it cannot bee imagined how their Votes there in Civilibus should conduce more ad majus bonum Ecclesiae Except the wilfull and incorrigible continuing in a course forraine and contrary to their proper Calling and such as being duely performed is a very great hinderance to the exercise of their Ministeriall Function as hath beene before declared can redound to the greater good of the Church which they seldome looke after unlesse to receive the profits of it and to plague those who are profitable in it that themselves may more splendidly and securely in Parliament and every where else Lord it over the whole heritage of God 3. ANSVVER to the first REASON The Apostles unnecessarily put themselves to more hinderances to worke for their livelihood Acts 20.24 1 Thessalo 2.9 2 Thess 3.8 EXAMEN Vnnecessarily Boldly spoken and were I sure that one of my fellowes or equalls had written it I should without breach of good manners pronounce it saucinesse little short of blasphemie Was it not necessary that the Apostles should have a livelihood And was the procuring of it by labouring with their hands although I know none but one after CHRISTS Ascension that was put unto it to avoyd the oppression of poore converts or to prevent scandall among either poore or rich converted or unconverted an unnecessary thing This may bee a straine of Policie passable enough among Spirituall Lords of Parliament but was never knowne to bee good Divinity among such as desire to approve themselves unto GOD. I have bin taught that Necessarium is put sometimes pro utili pro congruo convenienti as well as pro naturali seu debito or pro violento sua coacto And I have learned among the Schoole-men that there is a necessitie not only absolutè simplicite sic dicta but also ex suppositione conditione when a thing not simply necessary in it selfe becomes such in regard either of end meanes circumstances or otherwise When Saint Iohn 1 Epist 2.27 tells the Christians yee need not that any man teach you was his writing to them to instruct them further unnecessary When Saint Pauls abiding in the flesh was more needfull

for their owne lives and surely I beleeve it will be very hard for the Answerer to give so much as any one instance of an Almesman that hath beene allowed to Vote in Parliament Not that my purpose is hereby to disparage any of that Order in reference to their function or present honours but only to speake of them as the Law it selfe doth meerely and only for bolting out of the strength of this branch of the Answer to the Reasons of the House of Commons against the continuance of the Bishops place and Votes as Peeres in Parliament 3. ANSVVER to the fifth REASON The Knights Citizens and Burgesses are chosen for one Parliament only and yet use their Legislative power Nor will their being elected difference their Cause for the Lords use that power in a greater eminence who are not elected EXAMEN The Knights Citizens and Burgesses sit not there as single men but as the representative body of all the Commons of England each of them give their Votes with reference to all those from whom they are sent Besides they are by the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome to be there qua tales however the Election of the particular persons bee arbitrary and contingent And although those very persons may never perhaps serve again yet the right and inheritance of the Commons of England whence every member of that House deriveth never dyes so long as the Kingdome lives Therefore who ever for the time hath the honour to bee a Member of that society Voteth in right of the Kingdome not of a particular man As for the LORDS although they neither bee elected nor doe Vote for any but for themselves and their owne posterity yet they have this priviledge from an higher Originall than the Bishops can prove themselves to be descended from namely as wee said before not precario from Grace and favour but from the fundamentall Lawes and Constitutions of the Kingdome Besides their bloud breeding interest in the publike and care for their posteritie borne to so high places must needs assure us more of their wise carefull and zealous managing of their Votes in Parliament than can by any prudentiall or morall grounds be hoped from the Prelates 4. ANSWER to the fifth REASON A Burgesse that hath a Freehold but for terme of life only may Vote and assent to a Law in Parliament EXAMEN Cokus in Litt● Instit Sect. 133. The Free hold of a Burgesse is not by the tenure of Frank almoigne of which the present debate is for no Lay-man can hold any Land in that tenure Hee is therefore in that regard somewhat more capable But however this may bee yet that which was but a little before said to the next precedent Answer will serve here also A Burgesse doth not Vote in the House of Commons as a Free-Holder although haply none but Free-Holders or Free-men be eligible but as a person chosen by and for a Burrough which hath right to send Burgesses to Parliament and being there he Votes by the fundamentall Laws of the Realme Therefore it is not materiall whether his Free-hold bee for life or for longer time When Bishops shew the like warrant and Commission or the like fundamentall constitutions of the Kingdome for their Voting in Parliament then this Answer may be welcome to the House of Commons 5. ANS to the fifth REASON No such exception was ever heard of in the Diets of Germany the Corteses of Spaine or the three Estates of France where the Prelates Vote in all these points with the Nobility and the Commons EXAMEN What exception hath beene taken to Bishops in other Kingdomes is unknowne to me and perhaps to the Answerer also Unlesse he have seene all the Records and Journals of all those Kingdomes Nor doe I believe that the House of Commons had any Reference to other Nations nor doe intend to bee presidented by them As if because Bishops have this priviledge elsewhere therefore this must bee a Reason sufficient for the continuing their possession of it here Nay every Nation hath its proper Lawes and Customes and though it be no shame to borrow any thing that is better than our owne for the publike Weale yet it is no Answer to a Reason drawne from experienced inconveniency at home to say that this Reason was never heard of in forraigne States But yet I thinke if the matter were throughly examined it will appeare that in those Kingdomes Bishops have a kind of Soveraignty over their severall Territories and are Temporall Governours as well as spirituall Pastors And by the fundamentall Constitutions of those several Empires or Kingdomes those Bishops doe make one of the Estates of the Kingdome without which a Law cannot passe Sure I am it is so in Germany and I beleeve so or the rest although with some difference for they may make a third Estate and yet not bee secular or soveraigne Governors over their severall Ditions Now all know that it is farre otherwise with the Bishops of England and therefore this plea will not be of any force to breake the strength of this Reason of the House of Commons till the Prelates can translate our Lawes and Government into that of those Kingdomes from whence these presidents are impertinently borrowed 6. REASON of the House of Commons BEcause of Bishops dependency and expectancy of Translations to places of greater profit I. ANSVVER This Argument supposeth all Kings and all Bishops to be very faulty if they take the tune of their Votes in Parliament from these dependencies and expectances EXAMEN This Argument taxeth not Kings but medles only with Bishops It is true Kings bring them in and can be wise enough to serve themselves if they meet with men that will put themselves to sale for preferment And to speake plainely the receding from the ancient way of Electing Bishops by the Church is no small occasion and meanes to byas them and to engage them still to goe that way which they perceive him that hath the power of electing and of advancing them higher to bee inclined so that if a King should desire to draw them into a wrong course they scarce know how to deny him nor would many of them sticke much at it for they being men and sometimes none of the best are not onely subject to like temptations and failings that others be but more ready and officious to serve turnes than many times Princes do require And although the House of Commons doe not alwayes take the tune of Bishops Votes in every Parliament from these dependances and expectances yet when they see how much Bishops that have but meane Bishopricks doe continually labour to obtaine greater and to get up higher and then compare these ambitious practices with the tunes of their Votes in most things which concern the more perfect Reformation of Religion and the Clergy and the promoting of the power of Godlinesse c. they cannot but find to their griefe that Bishops Votes in Parliament

in 25. Edward 3. for Bishops intermedling in Civill Affaires because it is there said That the holy Church of England was founded in the estate of Prelacy within the Realme of England by the Kings Ancestors and other of the Nobility to inform them and the People of the Law of God and to make hospitalities almes and other works of Charity in the places where the Churches were founded c. and for this end their Lands revenues c. were assigned by the said founders to the Prelates c. And the said Kings in times past were wont to have the greatest part of their Councel for the safeguard of the Realme when they had need of such Prelates and Clerks so advanced c. This last Clause doth only prove de facto that so it was used but doth not legitimate the use all stories of those times being full of complaints against the mischiefes which arose out of it And that very Statute declares the prime end of advancing the Clergy into an Hierarchy was to counsell the Kings and others in the Law of God not in Civill and Martiall matters And so far is such intermedling in Secularibus from being countenanced by the Lawes of this Kingdome that by the common Law which is the most fundamentall Law of the Realme all in holy Orders are so carefully exempted from such incumbrances that if any Clergy man happen to be put into a temporall Office he must upon the pleading of his Orders have a Writ awarded him out of the Chauncery to discharge him Regist 187.6 Therefore it was farre from the intention of the first Founders of our Hierarchie to imploy them in Civilibus but only to make use of their counsell in Spirituals There is yet one thing more much insisted upon by some of the Prelates to prove the lawfulnesse of their intermedling in Secular Matters And it is a passage of Saint Augustine De opere Monachor Cap. 29. where hee saith It were farre more profitable for him to spend his time in reading and praying Quàm tumultuosissimas perplexitates causarum alienarum pati de negotiis secularibus vel judicando dirimendis vel interveniendo praecidendis 1 Cor. 6. quibus nos molestiis idem afflixit Apostolus non utique suo sed ejus qui in eo loquebatur arbitrio Ergo say some Bishops they have warrant so to doe yea a command from the Apostle and from the Spirit of God himselfe To this it may be answered 1. That in that very place St. Austin doth bemoane this as being Ecclesiarum quibus servit consuetudo the custome of those Churches and the practice began after Constantine made a law to warrant it for S Aust there saith that Paul never submitted to it nay rather he gave order to make them Iudges that were meanest and had least to doe And albeit St. Austin there addes that this toyle he undertooke non sine consolatione Domini in spe vitae aeternae ut fructum feramus cum tolerantia Yet this was not spoken as rejoycing in the imployment but as bearing it with more cheerefulnesse in hope of eternall life after it 2. As for the imployment it selfe he complaines violenter irruptum est non permitter ad quod volo vacare ante meridiem post meridiem occupationibus hominum teneor Epist 110. Possidon in vit Augustini ca. 19. and Possidonius that lived with him many yeares beares him witnes that hanc suam a melioribus rebus occupationem tanquā angariam deputabat Therefore it was that in Ep. 110. he desired the people that they would suffer him to put over all those businesses to Eradius whom he had chosen to be his successor in his Bishoprick which when the people had granted the good old Father presently unburdened himselfe Ergo fratres quicquid est quod ad me perferebatur ad illum perferatur ubi necessarium habuerit consilium meum non negabo auxilium 3. If this be not enough let me answer Bishops Treat Of Christian Subjection and Antichristian Rebellion par 3. by a Bishop viz by Bishop Bilson who being pressed with that place of Saint Austin de opere Mon by the Popish crue under the name of Philander a Iesuite returnes this answer under the veile of Theophilus an Orthodoxe Divine a Truth it is the Bishops of the Primitive Church were greatly troubled with those matters * And I have shewed before upon what occasion Prefat in Dial. not as ordinary Iudges of these causes but as Arbiters elected by consent of both parties And I could requite you with Gregories own words of the same matter in the same place quod certum est nos non debere which it is certaine we ought not to doe But yet I thinke so long as it did not hinder their Vocation and Function though it were troublesome unto them they might neither in charity nor in duty refuse it because it tended to the preserving of peace and love amongst men And the Apostle had licensed all men to choose whom they would for their Iudges no doubt meaning that they which were chosen should take the paines to heare the cause and make an end of the strife But it is one thing to make peace betweene brethren as they did by hearing their griefes with consent of both sides and another to claime a judiciall interest in those causes in spite of mens hearts Thus he and how home this comes to our Bishops that will needs still contest and strugle to retaine their Votes in Parliament in all civill causes whatsoever undervaluing all the Reasons of the House of Commons and contrary to the just desires of the whole body of the Kingdome I need not use more words to declare To finish this point All that hath beene said against the Clergies intermedling with Civill and Temporall affaires other than for necessary and comfortable provisions for Lively hood drives to this Conclusion that if it be so great an hinderance to the exercise of the Ministerial Function to be imployed in temporall matters which are but ordinarie it must needs be a farre greater hinderance to that holy calling for Bishops to Vote in Parliament because they cannot doe it as it ought to bee done without so much skill and dexterity in secular affaires of all sorts that possibly can come within the debate and resolution of a Parliament as must needs take up the greatest part if not the whole of a mans time study strength and abilities bee they never so great and many to fit him for that great service altogether beside I might adde inconsistent with his Calling of the Ministery 2. ANSWER to the first REASON It is propter majus bonum Ecclesiae EXAMEN Cujus contrarium c. What good they have done in Parliament for the Church unlesse to uphold the Synagogue of Rome let all Histories speake that have taken any notice of the acting and carriage of matters of Religion debated and Voted in